The invention relates broadly to exercise and rehabilitation devices and methods, and more particularly to exercise and rehabilitation devices and methods used by humans while in water.
It is well known that moderate exercise is beneficial to human health, due to increased heart rate, cycles of muscle contraction and relaxation, and stretching of tissues. Many exercises are difficult for people who have been injured, disabled or have a physical limitation, and it is known that exercising in water can reduce such problems. The buoyancy that water provides can substantially reduce the impact to the body of running and movements that are typically performed in air. The significantly greater resistance to movement provided by water than air can also provide benefits to the movements of those with difficulty in exercise, particularly given the resistance in all directions combined with the quantity of resistance.
Human movement in water can be difficult due to the instability that arises from buoyancy and increased resistance to movement compared to movement in air. This difficulty normally encourages the use of devices or apparatuses that stabilize people who are attempting to perform movements in water. However, such devices tend to create new problems due to instability, insufficient range of movement, poor design, and cost. The need exists for a device that allows humans to move in water in a variety of ways in order to tailor the types of movements to the needs of the person and his or her abilities and disabilities.